VMAX/VMware TechBook terminal release

I've posted what is the terminal release of the TechBook Using Dell EMC VMAX and PowerMax in VMware vSphere Environments. For those not familiar with it, this book contains the general best practices of using VMware with the VMAX/PowerMax family of arrays. This latest update has, for the most part, minor changes, and will cover...

Modifying VMware parameters with PowerMax – queues, et al

I'll provide the warning up front that there is nothing new or exciting in this post. It falls into the category of repetitive posts (here's another good example) I do sometimes in the hope of summarizing information for customers so they don't have to wade through my tome of best practices. Of course with that...

DTA 537000 – VMFS corruption with XCOPY

*** Update 2-27-2020 *** We have now updated the DTA for this issue where you can find the relevant patch number for the array. Please see article 000537000 below for details. ****** ******* 11/6/19 update I've been asked to provide any update I can on this DTA since it has been over a month, so...

VSI 8.0 – HTML 5

Today the newest version of the Virtual Storage Integrator, 8.0, is available for download here. VSI 8.0 is the first version to support the HTML 5 client available with vSphere 6.5 and 6.7. As VMware moves toward an HTML 5 client only, we are following suit and therefore the VSI 7.x releases are the last...

VMAX (and PowerMax!) plugin for vRO update

*** Update 3/14/19 *** There is a new plugin available for vRO here which is a supported version.   **************************************** I've posted our latest update to the vRO plugin to the GitHub. The developers have used this release to fix a number of issues I found in my testing, but most importantly we now support...

Online SRDF device expansion with PowerMaxOS

Beginning with PowerMaxOS on both the VMAX All Flash and PowerMax arrays, Dell EMC supports dynamic, online expansion of all SRDF pairs except SRDF/Metro (check this post for a workaround of sorts). Expansion prior to the introduction of PowerMaxOS, requires dissolving the SRDF pair, expanding each device independently and then re-creating the pair. This is...

VSI 7.4 – PowerMax support

So I believe this is our last VMware integration product to be certified with PowerMax. VSI 7.4 is still based on the vSphere Web Client, though the HTML 5 client is coming along - Q3 I'd guess at this point though don't quote me. As I mentioned before, the continuation of the Web Client version...

ESA 4.6 – PowerMax

So it's been less than 2 months since our last ESA release but we have another! Truth be told we had to wait to release ESA 4.5 because VMware delayed vROps 6.7 and we had already built it on that software. The new release, Dell EMC ESA 4.6, which also runs on vROps 6.7 of...

Dell EMC VMAX and PowerMax Content Pack

This week I published a new update to the VMAX Content Pack which is used in conjunction with VMware Log Insight, VMware's log collection software. You can locate it under the new name Dell EMC VMAX and PowerMax Content Pack in the VMware Solutions Exchange: or online within your own Log Insight installation: The description...

Dell EMC SRDF SRA 9.0, PowerMax and SRM 8.1

Today we posted the latest SRDF SRA 9.0 which is released in conjunction with our new PowerMax OS and Solutions Enabler 9.0. You can download both the Release Notes and software here. The most frequent question I have had as of late is what SRA supports the new SRM 8.1. It's this one. With that...